14 Soothing Remedies for Nausea & Morning Sickness

Nausea is a feeling of unease and sickness that is hard to put words too, but that at some point another most of us have been all too familiar with. Often times the pre-curser to vomiting, is a miserable thing to experience. It can be caused for many reasons, from dehydration to food poisoning, morning sickness to motion sickness, medications to acid reflux. A lot of the time occasional nausea does not warrant a trip to the doctor-always exercise common sense when make that decision-and there are quite a few natural and home remedies for nausea that you can try. Treating your nausea naturally tends to be less likely than stronger medications to be hard on your body, possibly making you feel worse rather than better.

1. Glorious ginger

Ginger, be it in the form of ginger ale, tea, or even raw, is almost a guarantee to help stop nausea in its tracks. Ginger promotes the secretion of various digestive juices/enzymes that help neutralize stomach acid. It also contains phenols that relax stomach muscles and act similar to a sedative on irritated stomach tissue, reducing over activity of the stomach. At the same time, the phenols are helping your intestine move digested food and toxins through your system quicker, getting any bad stuff that may be making you feel ill pass faster. You can take it in capsule form, nibble the root raw, or grate some into a soothing soup. Personally, if it’s possible, I find fresh tea or ginger ale (the real stuff) to be the best way to calm an upset stomach.

Directions
Wash your gingerroot well and then peel. Slice it into small pieces, cover with wax paper, and crush it or make your pieces extra small. Boil 2-3 cups of water over medium high heat and then add your ginger, letting it boil for 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and strain if you like, or pour everything into your mug. Add honey if you like. Sip slowly and relax.

If making ginger ale you will need…
-2 cups of roughly chopped fresh ginger, peeled
-3-4 strips of lemon or lime peel
-Chilled club soda, about 3 quarts
-Ice cubes
-1/2 cup of sugar, or 1 cup if you prefer

Directions
In a saucepan place 2 cups of fresh gingerroot, peeled and roughly chopped, lemon or lime peel, and 4 cups of water. Let this come to a boil over high heat, and then at an active simmer let it sit uncovered for 10 minutes or so. While stirring, add in your sugar. I prefer less, and wouldn’t exceed using 1 cup. After you add the sugar continue to boil the mixture until it is reduced to about 3 cups-around another 15 minutes. Strain over a large bowl, separating solids from the liquid. Chill the syrup in a glass container with a lid until cold, or up to 7 days. Mix ¼ cup of the syrup with 1 cup of cold club soda and pour over ice. Add flavorings to taste.

2. Learn acupressure

Acupressure is comprised of putting pressure in specific points on the body to relieve some symptoms causing discomfort or feelings of being ill, like nausea. You can use a nausea band, or just apply the pressure yourself. It is thought that utilizing pressure points in your body will release neurotransmitters, like serotonin or endorphins. These chemicals then block other chemicals that may be out of balance and/or causing you to feel sick.

Some acupressure points to try…

The p6 point or “inner gate”: 2 or 3 finger widths down from the top crease in your wrist (at the base of your palm) there is a groove between two large tendons. Gently apply pressure to this area when you feel nauseas.

Top and bottom of wrist: Take your thumb and index finger and firmly press on the points (where the p6 is) on both sides of your write. Hold for 10-30 seconds, or up to 5 minutes, and breathe deeply.

3. Let it out

If you’re feeling so nauseous you think you need to vomit, don’t fight the urge. It’s your body’s way of getting out something that’s causing harm in your stomach, and you usually feel much better afterwards. Holding it in can also damage the esophagus, because the stomach acid is just being held in your throat.

4. Manage anxiety

For me, when it comes to nausea, I am my worst enemy. If I even think I feel nauseous I worry about it until I really, truly, do feel sick. This happens particularly in places when it would be extremely unfortunate to vomit-like in a class, during a meeting, on a date, and so on and so forth. If you worry yourself sick, you can try-

– Accepting the fact that you might throw up. Acknowledge the thought, and let it go. This masters the fear causing the nausea.

– Breathing and sipping water. It gives you something to focus on feeling better. Hyperventilating can also make you nausea, or even make you vomit.

5. Make milk toast

Bland foods can help tame your tummy, and 2 that are particularly favored are milk and bread. Bread absorbs excess acid, while milk coats your stomach, which is also why they are generally recommended when you something like aspirin, which can hurt an empty stomach. However, you do not want to drink milk straight, as dairy alone can cause upset, so make milk toast for a happy medium. Do NOT make this if you have gastroenteritis (the stomach flu) which reacts poorly to dairy. Milk toast helps the most when the stomach is irritated from over-the-counter pain meds.

You will need…
-1 cup of milk
-1 piece of toast
-unsalted butter

Directions
Heat up 1 cup of milk until it’s hot, but not boiling, and then pour into a cereal bowl, or one similar. Toast a piece of bread, and spread a tiny bit of unsalted butter on it. Crumble the toast into the milk, and eat slowly.

6. Stretch

Upper back and neck pain can set off reoccurring bouts of nausea. In this case, the nausea is your bodies’ way of reacting to the discomfort in your back or neck. Try doing some simple neck and back stretches to release the tension causing the queasiness.

A back exercise: Try lying on a flat, solid surface (aka the floor.) Put down a yoga mat or something similar if you like. Lie like you’re about to do a push-up but instead of lifting up your whole mid-section, only lift up your upper body. Let your back arch and stretch as you tilt your head back as far as possible, the underneath of your chin facing the ceiling.

For neck exercise: Do not do actual neck rolls. Growing up playing rugby my coaches emphasized that when we stretched out in warm up rolling your neck around was not a good thing. It can pinch nerves, make you dizzy, and grind on disks. The vertebrae of your neck are not shaped for motion that follows a circular path, and overtime this hyperextension can have detrimental effects. Instead tip your head forward and touch your chin to your chest. Hold for 10-15 seconds. Follow this with tilting, not rolling, your head to left (like you’re trying to touch your ear to your shoulder) and hold for 10-15 seconds. Repeat on the right side.

7. Slice a fresh lemon

The smell of citrus can cut through the murky feeling of nausea, calm your stomach, and calm you.

You will need…
-1 fresh lemon
-A sharp knife

Directions
Slice the lemon in half and position it close to you so you can smell it, but it’s not overwhelming. Make sure you are inhaling and exhaling fully.

8. Apply a cool compress

Applying a cool compress (not shockingly cold) on the back of your neck when you’re in the midst of a bout of nausea can help kick the queasiness. It is the most effective when combined with the positions as described in #7.

You will need…
-1 cool compress

Directions
Get a cool compress-an ice pack that’s been sitting out for a few minutes is fine, a washcloth dunked in cool water, or a compress you’ve made yourself. Take up one of the above positions. If lying down, place the compress under your neck. If sitting, drape it across the back of your neck. Both this, and the position you’re in, are particularly helpful is the nausea is being brought on by anxiety of some sort.

7. Kick your heels up, or sit down

Circulation can be a big reason when it comes to feeling dizzy or faint, and dizziness is often accompanied by nausea. To help reduce the feeling, try the following positions to pump blood to where it is needed, or to stop it from rushing. They may also help your brain maintain a sense of balance or stability by changing up blood flow.

• Find a place to lie down-a bed in a dark, quiet, room is optimum. Make sure your head is lying mostly flat, with no pillows or only a very thin one. Bend your knees, and make sure you’re breathing and not shorting yourself oxygen.

• Sit down with your back up against a wall, put your knees up, and put your head between them. Breathe.

10. Peppermint (again)

Like lemon, peppermint is one of those fresh scents that have the remarkable ability to tame an upset stomach. It has several forms that lend themselves to natural remedies, such as tea or oil. For quick relief, try rubbing some peppermint oil directly on your gums.

You will need…
-Peppermint oil
-Cotton swabs or a means of washing hands

Directions
Dip or roll a cotton swab in a few drops of peppermint oil. Apply directly to your gums, and reapply if necessary. If you don’t have cotton swabs, wash your hands thoroughly. Put some oil on your fingertip, and rub onto your gums.

11. Suck on frozen fruit

Keep a few slices of lime or lemon in a plastic baggy in the freezer, and use for the times you find yourself getting nauseas. Like the smell of lemon can help you feel better, so can the sharp, fresh flavor of a straight wedge of lemon or lime. It also helps take your mind off of it, and while it may create a rush of saliva, it might transform it into an experience better than the “wet mouth” you get right before you are sick to your stomach. The cold is akin to sucking on ice-chips or a Popsicle if your stomach is upset, but if you prefer or didn’t plan ahead, unfrozen works too.

You will need…
-Several slices of freshly cut lemon or lime, frozen or unfrozen

Directions
At a time you don’t feel ill, cut a few wedges of lemon or lime. Toss them in a plastic baggy and put them in the freezer. When you start to feel nauseas, lie down (unless laying down makes it worse, of course) and suck on a slice. If you don’t have any frozen, fresh can substitute fine.

12. Get some air

Stepping outside into fresh air is sometimes all the remedy you need for nausea. Another way to help calm your body down is get air flowing over you.

You will need…
-A fan
-A place to sit or lie down

Directions
Place a fan so that it blows gently across your face. Having the fan oscillate (or turn) can make this more pleasant. When you start to get that hot and flushed feeling and break into a clammy sweat, a little air can go a long ways to stopping the awful feeling of nausea.

13. Replace fluids and nutrients

If you’ve been sick to your stomach and are still feeling nauseas, you are probably perpetuating the problem by not replacing the fluid you’ve lost. Even if you haven’t thrown up yet, still make sure you’re drinking plenty of water, as it is one of the most steadfast ways to relieve a feeling of queasiness.

14. Follow the BRAT diet

If you’re nausea is caused by something like the stomach flu or food poisoning, follow the BRAT diet to keep it under control. It is comprised of:

-Bananas
-Applesauce (without sugar)
-Rice
-Toast

It has a little less ring to it, but you can do the BRATPP diet, which is adding on:

-Pasta (lightly buttered or with a little oil)
-Potatoes (avoid the steak or gravy)

Treating the cause of your nausea is the best route to go, but there are plenty of times when it hits without warning, and with no way to prevent it. In this case, trying out natural remedies is a good route to take. Not only does it mean you probably don’t have to leave the house while you feel sick, but they’ll be easier on your body then the foreign substances we often use to treat ourselves today.

The Golden Rule on Nausea

“Mind over matter” is a good thing to remember in general, but it pertains to nausea in particular. Queasiness can, a lot of the time, be something that manifests as a result of what’s going on in your head, rather than what’s actually going on in your body. Also, if you fear throwing up (which makes you feel like throwing up) consciously think about how it’s okay if you do. Once you accept it you take the power away from the thought, and then it leaves you alone.

Claire is a lover of life, the natural world, and wild blueberries. On the weekend you can find her fiddling in the garden, playing with her dogs, and enjoying the great outdoors with her horse.
Claire is very open-minded, ask her anything 🙂 Meet Claire

58 Comments

Um not so sure I could do the milk toast thing LOL but taking a step outside for fresh air or sitting by a fan always helps me calm down. If I can get to it, ginger tea or flat ginger ale helps settle my stomach too.

I just cut a piece of fresh ginger root and grab a class of water and cut the ginger root into pieces and chew them while water is in my mouth and chew it down and swallow and i find it helps so much considering i m also pregnant . I also agree ginger root tea is also very affective way to get rid of nausea.

I get stomach aches every day and the only thing I’ve found that works is peppermint lavender lemonade. I mix sugar free lemonade (wyler’s light- or you can do regular lemonade) with fresh peppermint leaves (I like a drop of the essential oil too for a strong mint) and fresh lavender leaves. I prefer it iced but it is good hot too. Tear up the leaves to get a better flavor. Helps me every time! 🙂

If you are feeling nausea and your scared of actually vomiting, swallowing it back will not help, if anything it will make you feel worse as the bad stuff in your stomach wanting to come out is still in there, if your body is ready to get rid of its waste, let it do its thing and give your body a cleanse and get the bad stuff out. Then the next morning, instead of feeling ‘groggy’ you will feel better due to your waste leaving your body:)

such good ideas, dwn through the yrs i always wanted pickle juice, and never knew why. well sitting caring 4 my mom one nite. i was reading some of he books, and she always got the PREVENTION magazine, well right there it was, dill pickle juice 4 upset stomachs. they said it was the dill that settled our stomachs, so funny they never taught us that while going to nursing school. but it does help me, but i do waste alot of the pickles. lol

With the dill, you can also make a dill tea using dill seeds. Also fennel seeds are wonderful for gas pains which can sometimes make you feel sick. You can make tea of dill and fennel and in fact, these are two of the ingredients in Gripe Water for babies with colic. Just google homemade gripe water. Also, sometimes when I am feeling sick, I rub diluted (in oil) peppermint oil on my stomach, the smell helps and the properties of the peppermint are absorbed into your skin to help too! Thanks so much for the tips! I especially liked the ones regarding anxiety/fear of throwing up, which I definitely have plenty of.

My 17 year old daughter always feels (or is) sick within 24 hours of returning from her dad’s… we thought maybe it was something there but now are wondering if it’s something here! Any ideas how to stop this?

I had similar issues in my teens too. It was always before a trip I was about to take…I would have horrible stomach cramps and generally upset. Turns out it was anxiety…the good kind because I was excited to be going…but your body cannot tell the difference.

I would suggest trying one or two remedies at a time to see what helps sooth her stomach and nerves…like sipping tea at bedtime while reading a book 🙂 An Iodine supplement might help too as it is good for the adrenals (which produce Cortisol…your stress hormone). Check out Dr. Brownstein regarding Iodine deficiencies. That has helped me tremendously.

My papaw ate the milk bread all the time, just for a snack. He would also sometimes substitute saltine crackers for the toast. Neither one is actually as bad as it sounds… In fact, reading this has helped me reminisce about when I was little and we would share a bowl while I sat in his lap. Thanks for all the good tips. (And memories)

Claire, this post is so very helpful and well written. I was feeling extremely nauseous, decided to try a little of almost everything you suggested and my nausea is gone! Oh how I love natural remedies and people that share them! Thank you!!

Thank you for this post Claire. I recently found out I was pregnant and I have been feeling nauseous, especially in the morning. I was really hopeful about the ginger tea, and seems to work wonders for other women, but it really aggravated my stomach situation. Is it possible to use too much ginger or to let it seep too long?

i learned laying down,hot baths, and sucking on a peppermint and sipping gatorade slowly,(not all at the same time.) i can’t eat much but saltines are life savers.i have had the flu for 3 days now,and these are the things that dull my nausea but it has yet to have gone away.

Personally i suffer from nausea a lot and i have found that just putting a slice of lemon in your water takes away some queasiness… But make sure not to chug the water for that might make your nausea worse…

Thank you so much. I was recently diagnosed with “Vestibular Neuronitis” with violent vertigo that cause nausea. I already prepared my ginger water with lemon and placed peppermint oil on my gums. Feel much better! wow, what an instant relief! I would like to subscribe to your Newsletter.

I had a stomach virus as a kid that was so bad no matter what my mom gave me all during the night I was throwing up. She called our family doctor (the amazing old fashioned kind that handed out home remedies as much or more than Rx) and told her to give me tea.

Does not matter which kind of tea as long as it has black tea leaves in it (no herbal). It can be sweet or unsweet. It works AMAZINGLY well. It completely stopped my upset stomach as a child and I still use it today along with friends who are now convinced.

As an adult, I owned an English tea shop and learned tea is a digestive aid…due to the tannins found in teas.

This post has definitely helped Claire! Thank you.
I have been dealing with nausea/upset stomach since I was just a little girl, now that I’m 19, I feel like I’ve read and studied every trick for beating it. Over the years I have developed anxiety over being nauseas and it’s caused a lot of stress for me. The past year I have had a lot of great support and finally took matters into my own hands and tried every remedy. Ginger tea has done wonders for me, I lay in bed, have a fan going and sip at my tea and the horrible feeling is gone before I am finished my cup!
Hope this eases anyone else’s frustration:)

I am also dealing with the same problem and have been for quite some time now. (my nausea is caused by medication that I am taking). If your medication is not one that you HAVE TO take, I’d strongly suggest talking to your doctor to get off the medication, cutting down or switching medications. The days and times that I am not nauseous, I try to eat healthy and drink a lot of water to stay hydrated. What works best for me when my stomach starts feeling queasy (usually begins right when I wake up) is lying down, taking deep breaths, thinking positive and thinking of all of the things I am grateful for. Then I drink fresh squeezed lemon water slowly, maybe watch tv or read helpful sites (like this one) where other people talk about going through the same thing. It usually helps me feel better to know I am not alone. Real ginger ale works wonders! And the burping from the carbonation helps a lot. When you are able to eat something, snack on toast or saltine crackers, or frozen fruit is good too. Hope this helped! <3

Anything with ginger in it usually makes me feel worse due to the spicyness of it. Milk is probably the worst thing to have when feeling sick. I think sipping water and trying to not think of it is the only thing that works.

Same here with the ginger. When I get some discomfort in my stomach I tend to take ginger root pills, but once I get seriously nauseous I have no use for ginger. At that point the pills can’t be digested, and painfully spicy tea just makes matters worse.
And I’ve always known milk to be the worst thing for an upset stomach. Even when my stomach is doing good it sets it off a little, and I’m not even lactose intolerant. I think it has to do with milk being such a heavy base (its pH), conflicting with how acidic the stomach is.

I am the same way. Idk why it works for some people but not others.
When lying down, it seems like the stomach acid just naturally spreads up to the throat (like tipping a filled cup to be horizontal, and the stomach is the cup), so the nausea is suddenly intensified. Whereas if the stomach was positioned below the throat (being upright), then gravity would be holding the acid down in the stomach (until the body decides to force it up).
As for the fan, it makes matters worse because I tend to get chills and cold sweats when I’m sick to my stomach, rather than hot with fever. Maybe those are the symptoms you get too. I prefer to bundle up and even sweat it out more from being really warm.

Very great info. Ginger tea doesn’t work to well for me, GingerAle is a great choice but my stomach settles for just a couple hours. I’ve been nauseated for the past week, My M.D prescribed me with ondesetron & metocloprimide (grammer error) and Im still having nausea

To whom ever wrote this, THANK YOU! This is my total go to when I start to fell like crap. I have HORRIBLE anxiety and one of the biggest fears of getting sick. Both of them combined almost makes me feel as if I were dying. This sight has always helped me out when I don’t feel well because of how well it is written it’s just a calm and relaxing article to read. It not only gives you different things to try to help your sickly feelings (that actually work) but also makes you accept that if you do get sick IT WILL BE OKAY. I think of it as the steps of rehab, you get some solutions but also are made to accept the fact that you will be okay in the long run. Thanks again!

I have had nausea every night for the past week. Everyone in my school has stomach flu and at first I thought I had it too and thought “Well, it’s ok to throw up.” but it just wouldn’t come. The first night I had to pee ALL the time! I’m 12 so I thought it could be my period but that hasn’t happened yet either. I don’t feel nauseus in the afternoon so I’ve been going to school like normal, but at night it kicks in. It’s annoying cause’ I can’t get any sleep. One night I stayed up till 4am, then slept one hour till’ 5am. I’m scared to try these remedies cause’ most of them make me feel worse. I tried sniffing on lemons but that made me feel worse for a second. I tried ginger tea but it’s too spicy and it didn’t help. I was wondering if there was anything good for a nausea of this particular type? Thanks already, if anyone cares to anwser!

The ginger tea works. I drink ginger ale with lemons and limes. Although it tastes horrible, it calms my stomach down but i don’t know if it has stopped it completely in its tracks… You see i’ve been feeling nauseas for a whole month now and i’m guessing its because of stress as i’ve never gotten nausea for almost my whole life from 1-12. But now i’m in a secondary school and its really very hard to cope. I’m just wondering if its stress or not because i would really appreciate if someone tells me if it is and how to cope with stress. I really hate vomitting so i really want to learn how to cope. Please help me

I have been coping with severe morning sickness and nausea and nothing was going to help me getting rid of this freaky situation until I started “no to morning sickness tea”. This tea has natural soothing ingredients like lemon, chamomile and lemon peel.

Thanks so much for writing this! I was feeling nauseated but it wouldn’t come out ( probably because I’m slightly scared of that) and the lemon water is helping some. This site is amazing though! Has treatments for everything! Thanks!

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